The head of the Asociacion de Profesores de la UCV [UCV Professor’s Association], Victor Marquez, summed up the issue of salaries in the following way:

We hold a Guinness [World Record]. This is the only country in the world where a university professor earns less than the minimum wage.

As of May 1, university professors earn less than the minimum wage of Bs. 7,309.23 per month. This means that at the black current market rate (Bs. 287 per $U.S.), university professors in Venezuela earn less than $25 per month.

Marquez also pointed out that due to a lack of funding from the government, professors often have no choice but to dig into their own “dwindling pockets” to pay for supplies for their classrooms.

The system works by having citizens register at their nearest pharmacy. If they require medicine, the pharmacy will request it, and a text message will alert the citizen when the medicine is delivered to the pharmacy. The government has also promised that by subscribing to the service, patients requiring long-term prescriptions will be guaranteed to receive their required medicine.

On April 15, the Consejo Nacional Electoral – the country’s electoral body – said that a concrete schedule for this year’s parliamentary elections would be ready “in two weeks”. Nearly three weeks later, no announcement has yet been made.

While the elections are expected to take place some time in either November or December, Maduro hinted today that they could take place much sooner. Speaking at an event at the Teresa Carreño theatre in Caracas, Maduro said:

Listen here, friends: it’s really important that we start the campaign process now. We can’t be taken by surprise by the CNE when it makes its announcement. We have to be ready. If they surprise us, if they say the elections are in July, we have to hit the ground running!

There can’t be any guabineos [roughly, “indecisiveness”] of any kind, friends. There can’t be any kind of doubt. This is the revolution, socialism, chavismo. There is no other option. I want to ask you now – because we’re going to ask the candidates later – that we can’t have even one little faction; A, B, C, D. The only faction we must have is the Commander Chavez faction, the Bolivarian revolution faction, the faction that builds socialism, the faction of chavismo. This is the only group that should exist in Venezuela.